Ok, lets face it... getting old sucks!

Mike_Mac said:
Yes, getting old definitely sucks! Since retiring 15-years I have greatly enjoyed myself with old cars and motorcycles. About 10 or 12-years ago I was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Up until last September, I found I could work around the problem and work in my workshop/garage in the mornings and write reports on the work I was doing, on a couple of forums, to help others, and to keep me amused. In the last couple of years, I got increasingly more into machining and have had a pleasant time learning about machining on my lathes and mill on this forum.

At the end of last September I was taken into hospital after waking up at 2am in the morning not able to breath and the sweat pouring off me. Since then I have had two more short hospital stays. After attempting to venture out to the workshop on numerous occasions, in an attempt to do some ‘proper’ work, since my last visit to hospital, and speaking with my medical practitioners, it looks as if I am ‘flogging a dead horse’. My breathing is just not up to doing any actual work anymore. The COPD is not going to get any better, I now have had to come to the realisation, that my messing about with cars, motorcycles and machines is over. I will have to try and find something else to keep me amused and the old brain active.

To date, I am just managing to keep myself amused with reading others posts, but I feel I need to get my teeth into something more productive. Anybody got any sensible suggestions? I am sure there are many others who may have had, or have, the same quandary.
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Here's a thought if you like working on a PC... download a copy of Fusion 360 and learn some CAD. I love using CAD... you can create virtual machines, etc.. Learning new things as we get older is always important for our brains to function. There are many, many tutorials on-line to help you learn. And please, never think you're too old to learn something new!

Ted
 
Thanks to you all for your comments.

The quotes; "I will never regret getting old, because I know too many people who never had that privilege" and "One more day to be enjoyed", are very much appreciated, you have perked me up and given me something to think about. I think I was getting rather frustrated, especially as I recently treated myself to a Bridgeport turret mill, since it arrived I have not been able to use it, except with my wife's help.

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Here is Jane helping to make a handle for a threaded closer that I had recently made to stop the threaded locking ring for the chucks rattling on my old Woodhouse and Mitchell lathe when using 5C collets.

To explain better here is a photo.

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I made it out of an old BMW 2002 brake rotor.

Luckily, I am not on oxygen as yet, and yes, teaching or mentoring kids could be something that would interest me. I live in a rural area of Norfolk, England, and there are not many youngsters the slightest bit interested in the the sort of stuff I do.

Craig, thanks for your suggestions. Somewhere I can work seated at a bench. I have never been very good with small fiddly jobs, so I don't think clock or watch repair would suit me? Perhaps now I am older and slower I may have more patience?

Thanks again for all your posts, comments and suggestions.

Here are a couple of links to some of the stuff I have been doing since I retired.


forums.aaca.org

REPORTS ON A 1914 HUMBERETTE RESTORATION

Rebuild Report No. 1 on a 1914 Humberette 3rd August 2018 Hi, I am an old vehicle enthusiast from Norfolk, England ('old' in both senses of the word!). I have recently joined the AACA forum and thought I would record the restoration of my new project for any interested parties to follow. Last yea...
forums.aaca.org forums.aaca.org
 
Yes getting old sucks, but as some one has already said the only option is worse, so we just have to get on with it. I need help lifting things. The eyesight is fading but don't quite need glasses yet, as long as I can get some bright light on it. But my biggest problem is I just don't seem to have the enthusiasm any more.
 
Technical Ted said:
Here's a thought if you like working on a PC... download a copy of Fusion 360 and learn some CAD. I love using CAD... you can create virtual machines, etc.. Learning new things as we get older is always important for our brains to function. There are many, many tutorials on-line to help you learn. And please, never think you're too old to learn something new!

Ted
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Ted, I acquired a copy of fusion 360 about a year ago, but just don't know where to start, I came to computers rather late in life and I Just don't have any confidence with them.

Bob
 
I dropped a screwdriver on the floor and it rolled under a work bench, my first thought was when are the grandkids coming to visit, asked the wife, then went and got another screwdriver. Three days later the youngest grandson (13) retrieved the rogue screwdriver from under the work bench. As I get older the floor seems to be getting further down, than it was before.
 
I love grinding drill bit, just due to the fact that a bit looks so much like new, and doesn't cut well, I just grind them, and it cuts super nice. Not only that, with several boxes of bad drill bits, bought cheaply, now are good source. But the fun is not stopping there. It's that I didn't do it properly and still get good result. I just grind them. I bought an angle protractor, or whatever you call it, but I barely take them out. I just eye ball it, almost equal, good. I know, the hole is not going to have good size, and that's wrong. But that's the beauty of it, it's so wrong, but it works better than something look like new, and I meant it, the bit looks new on the edge and the sides. I don't know if I used it much or at all. It looks like the relief angle is what cut well.

Talking about that, I have a tap bit and a die, that I am 100% sure the die is new and the tap looks new, since it's an odd size, 7/16-20, that I never used before (bought new in a box). I just couldn't cut the thread, even aluminum. So I bought another one and cut very well. It didn't look like anything wrong. Must be the angle or something. Just low quality defective manufacturing.

On the old age, I am not sure if it's because I am getting old, but teaching my kids playing piano, also mean teach myself doing that. I learned real quick, play several songs no problem. A few weeks later, I don't know a thing about it. Just completely wiped out.
 
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My vision reality hit at about 40. I tore my pants at work and tried to thread a needle in the men's room to sew them up. It ended up being another case of a blind squirrel finding a nut as I couldn't see the eye of the needle. Tried feeding the thread a whole bunch of times before I lucked out. Then I started catching myself peeking over my glasses at the drill press to see if the spinning bit was on the center punched spot. At that point I pulled my head out of my butt and acknowledged that bifocals were way past due. No question of "manhood", natural progression of age.


Bruce

p.s. Here's my desk at work. I have an optivisor just in case my pants split again. Have taken measures there too, acknowledged that 34 waist pants fit better than 32.

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BGHansen said:
My vision reality hit at about 40. I tore my pants at work and tried to thread a needle in the men's room to sew them up. It ended up being another case of a blind squirrel finding a nut as I couldn't see the eye of the needle. Tried feeding the thread a whole bunch of times before I lucked out. Then I started catching myself peeking over my glasses at the drill press to see if the spinning bit was on the center punched spot. At that point I pulled my head out of my butt and acknowledged that bifocals were way past due. No question of "manhood", natural progression of again.


Bruce
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I guess this is one time I was ahead of the game. My eyesight never was all that good. At 8 years old we had to take a vision test at school. When the nurse asked me to read the second line my response was "what second line?" It took about a week to get an appointment at the local optometrist for a more thorough test. Not the best experience in the world. I think I heard the optometrist tell my mother that he thought I met the parameters of being classified as "legally blind".

No matter, I did get glasses and the world was a much more detailed place than I ever saw before. The other kids made fun of me, but at least now I could see who was doing it and I could plan revenge accordingly. As time went on my eyes didn't improve, but the quality of the glasses did exponentially. I could see everything (including some things I didn't need to see) at close range and at a distance with my new blended bifocals. All was well for another 50+ years.

In more recent times things are getting a bit harder to see at a distance, and even my close in vision isn't as good as I like. I can still read all the gauges, dials, and other controls well enough, it's the things like Bruce's example of threading the needle that give me problems. To resolve the problem of sharpening the teeny wienee drills I purchased a Black Diamond drill grinder. Now I can do anything from a #62 to a 3/4" bit in a matter of seconds.
All is well on that front, I just can't remember where I put the drill bits.

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